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Night at Nobu

So the other week I went to Nobu with a friend of mines for dinner. Now this was all prompted by a family member who asked me to go and peep the scene. First let me say Nobu is one of those places that you go to be seen with the expectation of good food. So the experience…

The décor was dark and reminded me of a wine cellar, lots of dark woods and lots of little lights. Now it wasn’t initially too bad as we got there BEFORE the dinner rush and nightfall. So we had lots of natural light. We also went to the original location on 57th and because it was before the rush we got prompt seating. So we scored a booth close to a window right above the bar. Terrible idea, the acoustics of the place do NOT lend themselves to having a conversation that didn’t lean towards screaming. I did enjoy however the cases of sake they had behind the wall of the bar that ran alongside the stairs to the dinning level. As the sun started to set there was such minimal lighting it was kinda hard to make out some of the foods brought unless you got close.

So on to the food. My compadre decided to get the Omakase, which is basically a mystery serving of dishes based on what is in season. Which is totally cool if you want to see what a place is about and sets you back about $100. You get about 8 dishes, small samples really. I however decided to get California rolls and Creamy Spicy Crab. Honestly what a bust. I could score better Japanese food in Chinatown than what I got. The creamy spicy crab was imitation crab in a cheese sauce that had been broiled and served with might have been roe. There was no side to accompany this dish and was considered a “main” dish. Some of the things that my friend got were an avocado hand roll, fish soup, black miso cod, ramen, and crab tempura. The best thing was the crab tempura that came with rice vinegar that got poured over it. They were stone crab claws (which are pretty good and meaty). I decided that black miso cod is sooooooooooooo not my thing. The desert she got was the Whisky Cappuccino, OMFG great. Whiskey foam, gelato, and a mix of cinnamon and cardamom. So delish.

Overall, don’t do it to yourself. And not for that price. We had a good time and some of the pieces were decent but Nobu was more about the hype than the actual food. Maybe I’d go back and try something else but I kind of doubt it. I’ve had better Japanese at the spot down from my job in downtown. I’d give them 1.5 out of 5 forks. As always this is my personal opinion and I always encourage people to try shit on their own. I mean we all like different things right?